


Pride, Among Other Things

by orphan_account



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 12:52:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3068636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lydia Martin is just beginning to realize the extent of her feelings towards a certain Stiles Stilinski, and she is so very screwed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pride, Among Other Things

**Author's Note:**

> It's better than the summary I promise! Thanks for reading:)

Lydia Martin was, by all means, a proud person. She maintained her appearance and her reputation, even if that meant she pretended that she was dimwitted and oblivious. She was an actress of sorts, at school she behaved as though she didn't have a care in the world, that her life was perfect and she was in charge, that she wasn't off fighting crazy English teachers and Japanese demons and were-jaguars every other week. She had pretended for so long that sometimes she had a hard time separating the person she was around the majority of her peers and the person she was when she was alone, or with her closest friends. It wasn't that she was completely different, but she was more closed off and untouchable with most people, and even some of her friends. She took a while to warm up to people, to completely let them in, and for a long time she didn't have any real friends whom she could trust. That's why when she saw Allison she had taken an interest in her. Lydia wanted a friend she could trust, and she knew that being alone sucked. Of course she'd had Jackson, but just because he was her boyfriend didn't mean she didn't have to put on a show around him, too. She had loved Jackson, or thought she did at least, but now she wonders if it really was love at all and not just a hopeless sort of infatuation she had clung to. As she and Allison grew closer, Allison was quick to notice someone else's infatuation; Stiles Stilinski's. To be perfectly honest she hadn't really noticed Stiles all that much until Scott and Allison became a Thing and, given that he was best friends with Scott, it was inevitable that she would be around him more often. When Allison had practically forced her to go to prom with him she was not pleased in the least, if she couldn't go with Jackson then she wanted to go with someone else who ran in a high social circle, but Stilinski? He was practically nobody, and had a weird and pretty obvious crush on her. She had expected to have a crappy time, but it didn't turn out to be half bad, at least until Derek Hale's absolute psychopath of an uncle left her bleeding out in the middle of the lactose field. Before that he had plucked together the courage and asked her to dance, not accepting her initial refusal, and his bravery paid off. It was nice, nicer than she would have thought, and he had understood when she left to go look for Jackson. She had pretended that she hadn't seen his heartbroken look as she left. And then later when she was on the brink of unconsciousness she had barely heard Stiles begging Peter to let him save her, that he didn't care what Peter did to him but please, leave her alone. She still isn't sure if it was a dream hallucination or something, but she knows from the nurses chatter when she eventually woke up in the hospital a while later that Stiles had stayed the whole time.  
When he had told her that he would "literally go out of my freaking mind" if she died she hadn't quite believed him at first, but no matter what angle she looked at it from, she was never that nice to him initially and had hardly acknowledged his existence for a while, so his feelings for her didn't make any sense. Lydia liked things that made sense, like science and math, where there was always a clear, reasonable answer. Stiles's feelings were neither clear nor reasonable, at least not to her. They grew to appreciate and understand each other better on a personal level as time went on, and he stopped acting as though she'd hung the moon in the sky. They became something like best friends even, always working together to figure out who was behind what and why and how to stop them. And when she kissed him when he was having a panic attack after finding out that all three potential sacrifices (including his dad) had been taken, she brushed aside the lightness in her chest and the tingling feeling his lips had left on hers that lingered for the rest of the day. She told herself it was because she needed him to hold his breath and that she did it as a friend, nothing more. No one could deny how well they worked together, they were both incredibly smart and he was great at putting the pieces together. Lydia hadn't felt the need to pretend to be something she wasn't when she was with Stiles for a long time. She hadn't realized the extent of their bond until Deaton of all people brought it to her attention, when Stiles had stepped into the tub of ice, trusting her to hold him down, and trusting her to pull him back. She was his tether and he was hers. And she had been terrified because he trusted her with his life and because it took them sixteen hours to return and because when he "died" a part of her felt like it was dying too. She noticed he was not himself afterwards, but it didn't help when she felt like she was being stabbed in the heart when there's figured out he was being possessed. She couldn't lose him, not after Allison, her death was so painful and it felt like a wound that would never quite heal right. When he had picked up Kira's sword, prepared to die in order to save his friends, she had felt paralyzed. She couldn't move or speak, only watch in a sort of fascinated, detached horror as the boy she'd grown to care for more than she would think possible almost picked up a sword with trembling hands and prepare to plunge it into his stomach. When he threw the sword away she couldn't remember ever feeling more relived. She had clung to him, the real him, as they'd face the Nogitsune and finally defeated it. They were close, even when he had started dating Malia, though somehow they grew apart, too, and it took Lydia a bit before she figured out why. It wasn't that she didn't like Malia, but from the get go the coyote-turned-girl set her on edge. She was blunt and always spoke her mind, and Lydia suspected it was partially due to her lack of understanding of human interactions and partially due to the fact that she didn't really care about the possible consequences of what she said. The prickling feeling of annoyance was ever present in the back of her mind when she thought about Malia and Stiles together. It didn't seem right to her. Malia had been a coyote for eight years. She didn't fully understand how humans interacted with one another yet and was perfectly willing to leave people behind on more than one occasion. Lydia grudgingly admitted that she did think Malia cared about Stiles, but maybe it wasn't in the same way. Stiles seemed to care more than Malia did, but who was she to judge, and besides its not like he was hers to begin with. Because he wasn't. He had liked her since third grade and knew her better than almost anyone, but he was never hers. He could have been, but she was too late to notice how much he actually meant to her and holy crap was she screwed. Whenever she thought about him (which tended to be quite often in between fighting off various baddies hell-bent on reducing the population of Beacon Hills and, you know, not dying) her heart went into over-drive and she had to fight down a goofy smile at his somewhat childish but nonetheless endearing antics. She knew that it would only be a matter of time before the others noticed, and soon enough it's a Saturday night and the whole pack is sprawled across Derek's loft amid piles of blankets and pillows and junk food watching movies and hanging out. She's smushed between Scott and Stiles, Kira and Malia on either side of them. Isaac, Derek, Liam, and even Ethan (who had brought Danny) are laying on the floor in front of the couch she's lounging on and half of the pack is asleep as it is well past midnight, and they'd spent the day kicking ass. Stiles too is asleep, the size of the couch and the number of people occupying it meant that he was pressed against her side. His head lolls to the side, eventually falling on her shoulder and he cuddles into her slightly. Her heart skips a beat from this small action and she curses herself for feeling like this. He has a girlfriend and he is happy she reminds herself. And even so, he's childish and sarcastic and a total idiot...and I love him, she realized. Yup, she is totally screwed. She lets out a frustrated sigh, not expecting a response, and definitely not expecting it to be Malia. Damn super hearing. "I'm, uh, I'm pretty new at this" the former coyote offers hesitantly,"but if you want to talk about anything, I'm here to listen." Lydia is honestly a bit shocked as Malia hadn't exactly shown a whole lot of interest in being friends, but doesn't let it show as she gives an unconvincing "No, I'm fine, but thank you" in return. Her gaze mindlessly wanders to the sleeping boy at her side and its all she can do to repress a fond smile at the sight of him, his messy hair and the tiny bit of drool at the corner of his mouth which is not cute at all, she tells herself firmly. Malia smirks knowingly "You know, Stiles and I broke up last weekend" Lydia must look confused or surprised or both but either way Malia understands and continues to explain that they had mutually agreed to split up, Malia had decided that maybe she rushed the whole dating thing since she wasn't fully acclimated to life as a human and Stiles had also felt that they weren't the right people for each other. "Plus" Malia concludes, "he's still into you,  
so you should probably tell him you feel the same way before he gives up on you for good." This time Lydia can't help it, she gapes at the girl in front of her, eliciting a soft chuckle from the cause of her surprise. Lydia sighs again, and this time it's a sort of resigned sound. "How did you know?" Malia only grins. "Just because I'm not totally on board with human socialization doesn't mean I'm completely oblivious. I see the way you look at him when you think no one is watching, and I can hear your heart beating faster when you're with him sometimes. I can also smell it on you too, and it's not just you. So basically what I'm saying is, you should tell him." She then winks and Lydia is half certain that this is some alternate universe or something. Her throat tightens and her eyes burn. "Thank you."  
Now it's Malia's turn to be a bit surprised.  
"I appreciate what you said... and I think I might, but I also just want to thank you for talking with me. I know you didn't know Allison but she-she was like a sister to me and I've missed talking to other girls about stuff, but I've got you and Kira and I feel so lucky, so thank you." Malia smiles at her before settling back against the couch.  
"Oh, and by the way Stiles, you can stop pretending to be asleep now" Lydia's heart stops at Malia's last statement as she turns her head to look at the said boy beside her, trying her best to erase the 'deer in the headlights' look off of her face. It's not flattering, and she would know as a deer had literally smashed through her car's windshield not too long ago.  
"You were awake this whole time??" She feels the heat rising to her checks and she can't quite look him in the eye but she feels his gaze on her.  
"To be fair," he begins, " I was asleep for a while, just not for your conversation...." He trails off sheepishly. "So, what are you doing tomorrow night?" Maybe Malia isn't so bad.

When they show up for school on Monday morning in his jeep and walk into class holding hands no one says anything exactly, but they all smirk at them and wiggle their eyebrows mischievously, and Lydia swears she sees money exchange hands multiple times. She can't help feeling as this is how it's supposed to be as she waves to Malia and the rest of the pack during passing period, her other hand still held by Stiles, which made her incredibly proud.


End file.
